Moments before Wednesday night’s MSNBC/NBC News commander in chief forum, MSNBC host/NBC News Clinton correspondent Andrea Mitchell informed viewers on Hardball that such questions about Hillary Clinton’s ability to serve in that top job leading the military in both a competent and tough fashion shouldn’t be given the light of the day because “[s]he proved her commander in chief bona fides” over her career.
Mitchell was speaking to Matthews, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, and Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson when she ruled that the questions heading into the hour-long forum would be “who do you trust” and “who has the temperament” for the job but for her friend Hillary, she spun that she’s ready.
“I don’t think she has to prove her toughness. She’s answered the 3:00 phone call question. I think she’s to prove her judgement,” she gushed under the guise of objective journalism.
Touting Clinton’s primary ad about that 3:00 a.m. phone call from the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, Mitchell continued shrilling for Clinton ahead of this supposedly objective forum unfortunately led by Today co-host Matt Lauer:
She proved her commander in chief bona fides in terms of being tough as a gender issue. That's no longer on the table. Now, she’s got to prove that she’s got the judgment and she is not willy-nilly getting into regime change, pulling Mubarak out, getting into Libya.
Matthews invoked her friend’s comments later in the show while interviewing Clinton surrogate and retired Brigadier General Loree Sutton as someone he’s “respected dramatically over the years” who both “studies” and “knows” Hillary Clinton:
Now everybody is trying to figure out Hillary Clinton because that's what we did for the last 20 years is figure out any of these politicians, especially — perhaps, probably, in fact in many cases would say the first woman president of the United States. Andrea Mitchell, I've respected dramatically over the years. I have watched her. She studies Hillary Clinton a lot. She knows her and she said she doesn't to have prove any more that because I'm a woman, I'll be tough. She said she's past that. She’s already proven whatever she had to prove in material of toughness.
The relevant portion of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on September 7 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Hardball
September 7, 2016
7:11 p.m. EasternANDREA MITCHELL: It’s who do you trust? Who has the temperament? And I don’t think she has to prove her toughness. She’s answered the 3:00 phone call question. I think she’s to prove her judgement —
CHRIS MATTHEWS: You mean in the room when they killed Osama bin Laden?
MITCHELL: Yeah, but the advertisement from eight years ago. She proved her commander in chief bona fides in terms of being tough as a gender issue. That's no longer on the table. Now, she’s got to prove that she’s got the judgment and she is not willy-nilly getting into regime change, pulling Mubarak out, getting into Libya.
EUGENE ROBINSON: Quick, I would say she has less to gain and less to lose than Trump does tonight. Trump, you know, Trump could gain a lot. He could lose a lot. It makes the night more of a referendum on Trump. That sort of schematic has been good for Hillary Clinton. If it’s a referendum on Trump, it’s generally been good for Clinton, but we’ll see.
(....)
7:30 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Now everybody is trying to figure out Hillary Clinton because that's what we did for the last 20 years is figure out any of these politicians, especially — perhaps, probably, in fact in many cases would say the first woman president of the United States. Andrea Mitchell, I've respected dramatically over the years. I have watched her. She studies Hillary Clinton a lot. She knows her and she said she doesn't to have prove any more that because I'm a woman, I'll be tough. She said she's past that. She’s already proven whatever she had to prove in material of toughness. Do you buy that? Does being the first woman president put on you a place of burden wouldn't be put on another president to say you're as tough as the guys?
BRIG. GEN. LOREE SUTTON (RET.): You know, any pioneering role, always puts a certain load, that wouldn’t be there for someone who’s not, in this case, a woman. So, I think with Hillary, she's been dedicated to service her entire career. Her life of service reflects that. Her relationships around the world reflects. That she's steady. She’s prepared from day one.
